A WORTHY EFFORT 337 



parties." It failed. Yet it was an effort that ought to 

 have been made, and was well made, ere the rupture 

 came to try to the uttermost what reason could effect, 

 and to demonstrate if that must be so that the opponents 

 were too irrevocably set to admit of compromise. 1 



1 Authorities for this chapter, besides the MS. documents given in Appendix 

 A and others cited in footnotes : Smyth's Franklin ; Hansard, Parliamentary 

 Debates ; Chatham, Provisional Act, etc., 1775 ; B. Williams, Life of Chatham, 

 1913 ; Lecky, op. cit. ; G. O. Trevelyan, American Revolution. 



